This is an activity about planning a planetary mission. Learners will play a card game to design a mission to Mars. This game will allow them to experience the fundamentals of the engineering design process as they use collaboration and...(View More) problem-solving skills to develop a mission that meets constraints (budget, mass, power) and criteria (significant science return). This activity can introduce many activities in technology education, including robotics and rocketry. The lesson models scientific inquiry using the 5E instructional model and includes teacher notes, vocabulary, student journal and reading.(View Less)

This activity is about planetary rovers. Learners will simulate the challenges in communications that engineers face when driving a rover on Mars. They will particpate as part of a rover team to design and execute a series of commands that will...(View More) guide a rover made of people through an obstacle course simulating the Martian surface. Students will learn the limitations of operating a planetary rover and problem solving solutions by using this simulation. The lesson models the engineering design process using the 5E instructional model and includes teacher notes, vocabulary, student journal and reading.(View Less)

This is an activity about spacecraft design. Teams of learners will model how scientists and engineers design and build spacecraft to collect, store, and transmit data to earth. Teams will design a system to store and transmit topographic data of...(View More) the Moon and then analyze that data and compare it to data collected by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter .(View Less)

The Cosmic Times Gallery Walk and Cosmic Times Jigsaw lessons serve as extensions to the Cosmic Times suite of curriculum support materials. They are intended to provide an introduction to Cosmic Times as a whole, giving students the larger picture...(View More) of how our understanding of the universe has changed over the last century. During the Gallery Walk lesson, students peruse the Cosmic Times posters to answer open-ended questions. During the Jigsaw lesson, students work in cooperative teams to understand the primary scientific advances over the past century that have contributed to our current understanding of the universe.(View Less)

Learners will construct a mock-up of planetary surface rover. They begin by exploring the importance of engineering in our society and work as a team to build a prototype of the team’s rover using student science notebooks and team sketches as a...(View More) guide. The lesson uses the 5E instructional model and includes: TEKS Details (Texas Standards alignment), Essential Question, Science Notebook, Vocabulary Definitions for Students, Vocabulary Definitions for Teachers, three Vocabulary Cards, and a Mini-Lesson. This is lesson 13 of the Mars Rover Celebration Unit, a six week long curriculum.(View Less)

In this lesson, students will read about and research the major historical events that occurred throughout the year 1919. They will use different readings and articles to understand and describe what life was like during this time. In addition, the...(View More) students will present their case as to whether or not Albert Einstein should be voted "Man of the Year" for 1919. This activity is from the Cosmic Times teachers guide and is intended to be used in conjunction with the 1919 Cosmic Times Poster.(View Less)

The activity introduces students to aspects of the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and litho/geosphere and how they are interrelated. It is designed to promote an interest in authentic investigations of Earth using images acquired by astronauts...(View More) as the hook. Separate student and teacher guides are available.(View Less)

In this activity, learners replicate the scientific processes of observing, forming an explanation, revising and communicating about a model of a comet. Learners construct a model of features of a comet using an assortment of common craft supplies....(View More) This activity relates to several NASA comet missions such as Deep Impact, Stardust, Stardust-NExT, and EPOXI and can be used to emulate a process that scientists and engineers follow on all missions.(View Less)

In this lesson, learners will discover how certain snakes (pit-vipers) can find prey using a natural infrared sensor and will extend their understandings by exploring infrared technology applications. The lesson features background information for...(View More) the teacher, pre-requisite skills and knowledge for the student, a mini-exploration of infrared image technology, multiple image sets, assessment information, student worksheets, extension and transfer activities, and additional resources. This is lesson 2 on the Infrared Zoo website.(View Less)

In this multi-day activity, identified on the Infrared Yellowstone website as Lesson 1, students use observation skills to determine what information can be gathered from images taken in both visible and infrared light. Students compare the visible...(View More) and infrared light images. As a result, students discover that the relative temperature of water from a geyser, as well as the nearby landscape, is revealed in the infrared images. This lesson features background information for the teacher, background information for students, a mini-exploration of Infrared Image Technology, image sets, assessment information, student worksheets, extension and transfer activities, and additional resources.(View Less)